What four-year-olds can teach us about workshopping

This made me think that there are some tips we can learn from managing four-year-olds that can be applied to facilitating workshops. That’s not to say that typical workshop-attendees are in any way like four-year-olds, but some of the same tactics can be used to avoid time-outs and tears before bedtime.

Carrot over stick

Every parent knows that carrot trumps stick when it comes to motivating your child to do what you want them to. Workshop attendees are best-motivated by making it clear how the outcomes will benefit everyone, rather than banging on about ‘ways of working’ and showering post-it notes everywhere.

Use sugar wisely

A room full of four-year-olds on a collective sugar rush is no place for the faint-hearted, but sweeties used wisely are a powerful tool in the parent’s motivational armoury. We’ve all seen the miraculous effect on a workshop of a bag of Mars-Minis – keep chocolate to hand to combat the 3pm lull, and beware also the energy dip after an overly-generous lunch.

Lunch matters

Getting a four-year-old to sit down at the table and eat properly is a challenge. Getting a workshop attendee to sit down at the table and do a task properly on an empty stomach is a dead loss. Any experienced international facilitor will tell you that rule number one of agenda-writing is: check when they need feeding.

Slow, slow, quick quick slow

Everything takes longer with a four-year-old: getting dressed, getting fed, going to the toilet, getting to bed. I’ve yet to run a workshop where I’ve got to mid-afternoon thinking ‘this is great, we’re way ahead of schedule’. When doing your timings, assume everything will take longer than you think it will – especially feedback. (Do ask attendees to keep their summaries concise but don’t expect this to have any effect whatsoever. Generally every single post-it gets read out – so tailor the outputs to what you need to hear).

KISS

Keep it simple, stupid. At my son’s football classes some of the instructions tend to last longer than the exercises, and mayhem inevitably ensues. Marketeers tend to have longer attention spans than four year-olds, but they also tend to have quite a few more distractions in their lives.

The simpler you keep things, the better chance you have of meeting your objectives, and keeping attendees engaged and on-track. This means (i) keeping the overall process tight, with a clear linear flow that gives attendees a sense of purpose and progression, and (ii) keeping tasks simple: clear and limited instructions, with templates to ensure outputs are to spec and consistent between teams.

Plenty of signposts

“We’re leaving the park in five minutes, start getting ready to say bye bye…” Little people need to know what’s coming and so do big people.  A clear agenda, printed and in front of everyone, reminders throughout the day and clear signposting of how it all fits together help people to feel in control (even if they’re not – you are!)

Expect the unexpected

When you’re going out for the day with a four-year-old, it helps to have a plan, which you can then toss in the bin at the appropriate point. four-year-olds have a habit of throwing spanners in the works of your best-laid plans, as do marketing directors.

Good workshops require detailed timeplans, but be ready to flex this according to what’s working (or not) on the day, and what curveballs get thrown. That’s not to say the good facilitator should just blow with the wind – keep your end goals in mind and be prepared to forcibly park issues in order to avoid disappearing down rabbit holes.

You’re the boss (yeah, right…)

As soon as a four-year-old smells your fear or doubt, you’re done for. You have no more high ground, and with his greater stubbornness, you’ve lost your authority. No matter what happens in the workshop, at all times project the following: (i) the agenda is exactly on track and as you planned, given the circumstances, (ii) you know exactly what you are doing, (iii) you’re in charge – workshops are not a democracy!

Get their hands dirty

Kids are better do-ers than listeners – likewise wokshoppers. The quicker you get people ‘doing’, the quicker you’ll have their attention, energy and belief that this is not another dreary presentation. Equally true for distilling data or building a model of the next innovation out of plasticine.

Have fun on the run

If you can’t have fun with a four-year-old, then your inner child probably doesn’t like you anyway. Workshops are rarely an easy day away from the desk, but they should at least be stimulating and novel. Remind everyone that this is an opportunity to do different stuff in different ways. Try to get a small child to clean up and it rarely happens, make it into a race and you’re away: make the day feel like a challenge not a task.

The more dynamism you can include in a workshop the better – this includes ice-breakers, warm-ups, energisers and creative exercises (but read the energy in the room and use selectively to get the best out of these). Give people a chance to move – between stations, rooms, or just away from the same person they always sit next to… this gets the blood moving and the brain working. Physical energisers before the last key section of the day are a must.

And if things get really out of hand, don’t panic – 20 minutes of Peppa Pig on the iPad tends to restore order.

Michael Martin is a director at Insight Inside